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Butters Scotch said he was “bi-curious” and sent away to gay camp to change his sexual confusion in a episode of “South Park.” (Photo courtesy of Comedy Central.)

By The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Two federal judges in California have arrived at opposite conclusions on whether the state’s first-of-its-kind law prohibiting licensed psychotherapists from using conversion therapy on gay minors violates the Constitution. The measure remains clear to take effect on Jan.1.

U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller on Tuesday refused to block the law after concluding that opponents who sued in her Sacramento court to overturn it were unlikely to prove the ban on “conversion” therapy unfairly tramples on their civil rights.

The injunction was filed by the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality and the American Association of Christian Counselors, as well as unnamed individuals who sued shortly after the law was signed.

“The court finds there is no fundamental or privacy right to choose a specific mental health treatment the state has reasonably deemed harmful to minors,” Mueller wrote in a 44-page decision.

The opponents argued the law would make them liable for discipline if they merely recommended the therapy to patients or discuss it with them. Mueller said they didn’t demonstrate that they were likely to win, so she wouldn’t block the law.

Butters Scotch said he was “bi-curious” and sent away to gay camp to change his sexual confusion in a episode of “South Park.” (Photo courtesy of Comedy Central.)

By Lisa Leff, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked California from enforcing a first-of-its-kind law that bars licensed psychotherapists from working to change the sexual orientations of gay minors, but he limited the scope of his order to just the three providers who have appealed to him to overturn the measure.

U.S. District Court Judge William Shubb made a decision just hours after a hearing on the issue, ruling that the First Amendment rights of psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals who engage in “reparative” or “conversion” therapy outweigh concern that the practice poses a danger to young people.

“Even if SB 1172 is characterized as primarily aimed at regulating conduct, it also extends to forms of (conversion therapy) that utilize speech and, at a minimum, regulates conduct that has an incidental effect on speech,” Shubb wrote.

The judge also disputed the California Legislature’s finding that trying to change young people’s sexual orientation puts them at risk for suicide or depression, saying it was based on “questionable and scientifically incomplete studies.”

(The loopy and absurd technique also became infamous after the 2007 “South Park” episode “Cartman Sucks.” Butters Stotch’s parents thought he was “bi-curious” and sent to him a pray-the-gay-away camp, where several youth committed suicide after
being told they were sexually confused. – Out in the 562)